Hikers and campers, especially backpackers, usually require a shelter such as a tent for overnight or multi-night trips. The longer the trip, the greater the need for a shelter of as little packed weight as possible to reduce fatigue, to make room for food and other gear, and to increase the enjoyment of hiking.
Tents tend to be one of the heaviest items in the pack, and many hikers opt for lighter, less-protective tarps or floorless shelters such as nylon pyramids for the weight savings alone. Even “single-wall” tents, with only one layer of waterproof canopy fabric (rather than spaced layers of breathable and waterproof fabric), tend to be heavier than tarps due to the tents' flooring and heavier structural components. Moreover, single-wall tents tend to be known for condensation problems, where exhaled and evaporated moisture from the occupants condenses on the inner surface of the fabric and either drips or runs down the walls onto the floor. Solutions to the condensation problem such as inner wicking surfaces and vents tend to increase weight, and have limits in certain environmental conditions.
Other factors in choosing a tarp shelter over a tent seem to be the preference among many hikers for a more open, airy, close-to-nature experience while sheltering and sleeping outdoors, and the absence of any need to care for an attached floor and keep it clean. The primary drawbacks of tarp shelters are their lack of structural stability in wind, and their lack of insect protection as they are typically floorless and without insect netting.
A hybrid solution to the foregoing problems has been to apply netting in some fashion to tarp style shelters, with mixed success. Detachable netting inserts, defining floored or floorless screened enclosures within the protective tarp canopy, tend to add undesirable weight back into the system. Fixed netting sewn along the tarp perimeter and hanging to the ground provides some protection, but the lack of tensioning and supporting structure in even a well-rigged tarp mitigates some of the benefit. And, finally, tarps simply lack the tent-like structural strength and protection that many hikers find preferable.
An early solution to the foregoing problems was my original Tarptent™ shelter. This combined features of tarps and tents, with a pole-supported, tensioned, tent-style waterproof canopy using lightweight material, and front and rear doors and a sidewall made from insect netting to reduce condensation and provide bug protection.
A second version of the Tarptent™ shelter offered improved structural strength and ventilation using a waterproof canopy raised fully off the ground, a catenary curved ridgeline, and a tensioned, inwardly-angled rear arch pole in place of the previous upright rear pole. The rear arch was staked out with a single stake anchoring three tensioned guylines running from a rear arch awning.
The Tarptent™ shelters were primarily intended as floorless shelters for simplicity and weight savings, with lightweight, removable groundcloths preferably used over the bare-ground “footprint” bounded by the drop-down netting sidewalls and front and rear netting panels. Floors, however, can be optionally added by sewing them to the hanging netting perimeter along the sides and rear.